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Lovemore Dube Senior Sports Editor
HIGHLANDERS FC, beaten twice to the title on goal difference in 2012 and last season, will hope for a better second half performance to propel them to the sole ticket for Zimbabwe at the 2015 African Champions League. Two club legends have called for better character from the boys. Former club hitman Zenzo Moyo said the championship could be for theboys to lose once again. He lamented the lack of a killer instinct and individual goal setting among individual players to ensure the team stayed very competitive.

“The current team lacks that zeal to triumph. The extra urge that even when they have scored two goals to still want more. To pick up the ball from the back of the net and take it to the centre as they seek more,” said Moyo.

He said on song star Charles Sibanda needed another player to take the load from his shoulders.
“For a team like Highlanders, you need two strikers who can score between 40-50 goals a year. Charles is a good striker and he is scoring, he needs someone to share the burden with. He needs a right back to supply him, otherwise they have to maintain the momentum in the second half and try to bag it this time around,” Moyo said on Thursday.

Former Highlanders striker and coach Cosmas Zulu said there were a number of factors. He said the problems were not to do with coach Kelvin Kaindu and the Peter Dube executive.

“It’s got to do with the culture and philosophy of the junior policy. We have to groom our own players who understand the Bosso cause. All of a sudden we are bringing players from outside, they lack what it means to wear the Highlanders jersey. Also the technical team does not know what it means to be a Highlanders coach and what to say to the boys before the matches to get them psyched for the job at hand.

“As long as that is not there we won’t have the last push to win the championship,” said Zulu.
He said a player like Murape Murape of Dynamos would always score when Dynamos play Highlanders and Caps United.

“He knows what it means to win against those two teams. He knows what a DeMbare fan feels like when they have lost too,” said the former Bushbucks, Highlanders, Olympics and Eastlands striker.

He said when he was at Highlanders he would be inundated with elderly people coming to his house claiming to be Bosso committee members for the Entumbane supporters executive, wanting to find out what went wrong when the club would have lost.

“They would want to know where we went wrong, but since 2006 when we last won the championship we had our own talent we groomed. Unless you feel you represent the old men in Binga, Tsholotsho, Plumtree and Filabusi who are hurt when the team loses, you will never feel what it is to play for the club.

“I also blame Peter Dube and Jerry Sibanda, they have been there at the club since our time as young boys. They must encourage dialogue with former players and coaches. We want to help if we are approached. When the team loses it really affects us, we want to help the club; we don’t want positions. The club invested 20,000 pounds for me to go and train in England but all that knowledge is going down the drain,” Zulu said.

Moyo and Zulu – both bustling strikers in their heyday, are worried that the club may not hold on again.
Zulu challenged the Bosso players to prove the prophets of doom wrong and go all the way and win the championship by playing for the millions who believe in the Bosso brand. He said a Bosso player must have special qualities like being a fighter on the field of play.

The team is in a similar situation like in 2012 and 2013 where they found themselves at the top of the standings at the half way point.
This year, Kaindu’s men top the table with 30 points from 15 games. They enjoy a plus 17 goal difference over their nemesis Dynamos who are third on 27 points.

In 2012 Highlanders went into the second half leading the table with 33 points and a plus 19 goal difference. Dynamos went on to win the title having amassed 30 points at the half way mark with a plus 17 goal difference.

The die was cast in the second half of the campaign where Dynamos won 12 matches, drew three and lost none. The Harare giants were merciless in front of goal finding the back of the net 28 times against five conceded.

Their adversaries Highlanders slackened in the second half winning 11 and drawing three at the same time losing one match that season to their bitter rivals and allow Dynamos to rally from behind and gain three points. DeMbare’s rampant form in front of goal was good enough to see them pip Highlanders to the honours on goal difference.
Highlanders had in that year gone for 23 matches without conceding defeat.

Both teams garnered 69 points.
The same scenario prevailed last year. Bosso, who were largely expected to do much better having risen from position seven in 2011 to second in 2012, found themselves at the top of the standings at the half way mark with 29 points. Their lethal strikeforce had found the back of the net 26 times and conceded 12 goals as their defence was among the best in the land. Once again competition turned out to be between them and Dynamos. DeMbare were on 28 points having conceded 12 goals, scoring 23 in the opposition goal.

Dynamos, 2011-13 league champions, the second team after Highlanders to win three consecutive titles in the new millennium, garnered 26 points against Highlanders’ 25 in the second half of the season which was enough for the title on goal difference.

Could 2014 be third time unlucky for Zambian gaffer Kaindu and his executive which is led by Peter Dube?
The multitudes of fans that support the Bulawayo team remain confident that the jinx will end this year.

In this season’s championship race, Highlanders boast a three point lead over Dynamos at 15 games played.
Led by top goalscorer Charles Sibanda and resurgent goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda, they have scored 29 against 12 shared by the trio of Ariel, Munyaradzi Diya and Njabulo “Popo” Nyoni.

To their credit, Dynamos, who have started among the favourites for most of the last 50 years of elite football in the country, lie third with 27 points and a plus six goal difference – the third best statistic in the land.

In a bid to arrest the 2012 decline in the second half, last year Highlanders brought in proven goalscorer Master Masitara from Botswana and little known Tinashe Chipunza. What is remembered about them are lashings on social networks as they failed to justify their transfers to the City of Kings.

In 2012, Bosso failed to bolster their side and the loss was attributed to poor options in the transfer market.
For the past three years, Bosso have been exposed in a number of positions. Unless drastic measures are taken, their good start of amassing the highest number of points despite not being at their best could end in disappointment.

With just less than a fortnight to go before the transfer window closes, Bosso need to plug weaknesses on the defensive flanks, come up with a highly mobile midfield that is as good in attack as it is in defence.

A solid defensive link with positive forward play, an organiser and a bulldozer could make the difference to ensure Bosso land their first league title since 2006.